The Pointer Sisters

Back in the mid-'80s, a party without the Pointer Sisters was barely worth its salted chips 'n' dips — riding high on the success of 1983's Break Out, the family trio gave us the joyous and addictive "Jump (For My Love)," a reprised version of the ultra-adrenalized "I'm So Excited," and their frenetic beat-bonanza, "Neutron Dance," which found its way onto the soundtrack for era-defining action movie Beverly Hills Cop. Preceding that run of hits, the group had mastered sultry funk, feverish scat . . . and had even covered the Boss — check out 1978's "Fire."

There was nothing the sisters couldn't do, as the tracks in Next Steps confirm.

Funk, bebop, disco, new wave — name just about any genre, and you find a Pointer Sisters track to suit. Explore the ladies' natural-born talent and incredible versatility here, with a couple of tracks from their 1973 self-titled debut album: "Wang Dang Doodle" — originally written by Willie Dixon for Howlin' Wolf — is performed by the sisters with boogie-woogie party panache, while the jazzy, scat stylings of "Cloudburst" will knock you sideways. Those skills would later reappear, with syllable-shootin' relish, on their cover of the Dizzy Gillespie co-penned "Salt Peanuts."

Best known in the trio formation of Anita, June, and Ruth, Oakland's Pointer Sisters started out as a quartet (fourth sister Bonnie went solo) before settling in as one of the '80s quintessential party bands. They introduced themselves to the world at large with a throwback '40s vintage look, made their TV debut on The Helen Reddy Show in '73, and forged a charismatic path through bebop, funk, and — believe it or not — country, en route to the nation's affections: "Fairytale" was a top 40 hit in 1974, and led to the sisters becoming the first black female singers to perform at the Grand Ole Opry. "You Gotta Believe" accompanied the Pointers' appearance in cult blaxploitation movie Car Wash (1976), and the transition to the '80s would bring a stratospheric run of MTV hits, most of which appeared on landmark album Break Out (1983).